There are numerous problems presently associated with receiving visitors at a home or office. When the resident is absent, there is often no message for visitors and no means for them to leave a message for the resident. This situation can be especially inconvenient when, for example, a delivery or repair person arrives. When the resident is present, on the other hand, there are also problems associated with receiving visitors. Some visitors may be unwelcome, for example, and it is often not evident that a visitor is a threat or an annoyance until after the door is open and it is too late.
In the past, there have been many intercom-type doorbell systems which enable a person to speak to a visitor at the front door before opening it. None of these intercom-type devices, however, has stored messaging features that make them useful when the resident is away from home or unavailable. They thus neglect to address many of the problems associated with receiving visitors.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,468 "Door answering system" issued Sep. 15, 1992 to Marrick et al discloses a door messaging system that records messages from visitors. This device, however, has no intercom capability for permitting the resident to speak with the visitor, nor does it have a screening capability whereby the resident can secretly monitor a message as it is being left by a visitor. Another disadvantage of this device is that, like many telephone messaging systems, its interaction with the owner is not intuitive or hands free, and its interaction with the visitor is limited to a single option. In addition, it is tape-based and therefore less robust and less versatile, and it requires custom wiring between the interior and exterior units.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,300 "Security door phone device" issued Apr. 12,1994 to Eckstein discloses a device that calls a predetermined telephone when a visitor arrives at their door, thereby allowing residents to converse with the visitor via telephone, or let their telephone answering machine take a message. The answering machine can also be used to screen visitors just as answering machines are often used to screen telephone calls. This device, however, has several disadvantages. Because the system relies upon a telephone for the intercom feature, it does not permit the resident to converse with the visitor while the telephone is in use. In addition, because the telephone answering machine is used for both telephone and visitor messaging, if the telephone is in use when a visitor arrives, the visitor can not leave a message and the resident can not screen the visitor. Moreover, since the same machine is used for both phone and door answering, the two types of messages can become easily confused. This system is also not self-contained since the messaging feature can only be performed in combination with a telephone and a telephone answering machine. This complication also increases the likelihood that the system will malfunction. Additional disadvantages are that this system has, like most telephone answering machines, a primitive messaging system, it lacks interactivity, and it requires custom wiring between the interior and exterior units.
Most phone messaging devices have little or no automated interactivity with the caller or the resident. The flexibility of their interaction is limited since only one message is played to a caller and only one option is given to the caller: to record a message or not. Although the resident has more interactivity with the device through the use of several buttons corresponding to different functions, such interaction is not intuitive and often has peculiarities that vary from one machine to the next.
In recent years certain consumer devices have appeared that use speech synthesis or speech recognition to enhance interactivity with the user. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,618 "Voice activated, handsfree telephone answering device" issued Apr. 11, 1995 to Knuth et al discloses a telephone answering device that is activated by a proximity sensor and whose operation is controlled by simple voice commands by the resident. The device incorporates voice recognition circuitry to respond to spoken commands of the user that are elicited by a system generated voice request menu. The telephone answering device performs all the basic functions of a telephone answering machine in response to these simple commands and there is no need for the user to manually operate the telephone answering device.
This telephone answering device, however, is not designed for or capable of addressing the need for a door messaging and intercom system. Indeed, even if it were used in combination with the telephone intercom device of Eckstein, it still has serious problems with the intercom and messaging features due to its reliance on the telephone connection. Moreover, such a combination only enhances the interactivity of the resident with the machine, and does not enhance the interactivity of the visitor with the machine. The visitor is still faced with a primitive messaging system with no interactivity. No prior art messaging system has flexible and intuitive interactivity with the visitor or caller.
There remains a need, therefore, for a self-contained door communication and messaging device that has simple and intuitive interactivity with the visitor, that has messaging capability permitting incoming and outgoing messages to be easily recorded and played, that permits the resident to screen visitors, that permits the resident to speak with visitors without opening the door, that does not interrupt or get interrupted by the use of a telephone or telephone answering machine, that does not require wiring from the exterior to the interior, and that is inexpensive and easy to install.